Written by Gooner Fish on Friday, 15 October 2010 15:23

800 and not out.

Arsene Wenger celebrated his 800th game in charge of Arsenal on Saturday against Birmingham City at the Emirates, a record only beaten by Alex Ferguson at Man Utd.

Wenger first graced us with his presence sporting his massively over sized glasses on October 12th 1996 away to Blackburn. Two Ian Wright goals gave us the points that day and under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal FC went on to enjoy many fine years of success.

In Arsene Wenger's first full season in charge we collected the Premier League and FA Cup to complete the double.

Wenger's record in all competitions reads as P799 W465 D185 L149 that's a win % of 58% which is not bad at all and Arsenal fans have enjoyed watching the men in red scoring an impressive 1474 times, that's an average of 1.84 goals a game.

OK, that's the stats out of the way, if you want to find out more detailed stuff you will find it spread across hundreds of sites on the Internet, I'm gong to concentrate on Wenger the man rather than his stats.

Arsene Wenger in my opinion has not only changed the way Arsenal play but has changed the face of English football. When Arsene arrived from Japan, not a single person came out in the press to sing his praises, there wasn't even anyone to slag him off and tell us how he's nowhere near the man we needed for the job, in fact no one had heard of him - Oh how the world changes.

Arsene Wenger was the first manager to implement behaviours at a club that effected the players life off the pitch. He introduced new training regimes, he introduced new diets for his players, he stopped his players partying, drinking and behaving like..... well...... John Terry or Wayne Rooney.He even starting making players stay in a hotel the night before HOME games, this was the norm for most away games but to do it before home games was just pointless madness. Slowly but surely other clubs began to see the benefits of Wenger's crazy foreigners techniques and began to follow his methods. Before too long, other club's higher powers starting looking abroad for new managers in hope that Arsene Wenger's success could be replicated. If you look around premiership clubs today, they all follow Arsenal's model, they all put their players on a special diet, they give them fitness and weight goals during pre season, tried to stop the partying  and yes, even started booking hotels for home games.

Arsene Wenger's shaping of the English league still hasn't stopped. He started concentrating on youth systems, I'm not saying he started youth academies but he did change the way the players were brought through. He was among the first to start looking abroad for talent which is now the standard, he was the first to play his youth stars in the league cup which he was absolutely slated for and now even clubs who's season objective is to avoid relegation in the Premier League play at least their reserves if not their youth team and now most recently Arsene Wenger and Arsenal are role models for every other club in regards to our financial structure, the perfect example being the new Liverpool owners asking for a tour of the Emirates and details of our financial structure before they bid for the Mersyside club.

Like it or not Arsene Wenger is not only the most successful manager in Arsenal's history but is the sole reason the Premier League is the league it is today. He has lost many 'fans' in recent years but Arsenal cannot wish for a better manager to lead us through future years and I for one still sing from the roof tops IN ARSENE I TRUST.

Goonerfish.

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Comments (5)

• 18-Oct-2010 18:18 | | MeanLean
  

  Nicely put Goonerfish,
  
  Arsene has been fantastic for Arsenal. His early success was something special and has brought us many trophies but I truly believe that what he is currently doing for the club will outdo everything he has achieved so far.
  
  Arsenal have been derided for not winning anything in the last five years or so but his longer term planning will slap so many people in the face.
  
  We are already getting a hint of that from Wilshere, Gibbs et al.
  
  People will be waxing lyrical about his work, many have not been able to fully see it as yet.

• 18-Oct-2010 18:42 | | Geoff
  

  I think George Graham was as good as Wenger, last 5 years have been poor and 5 years is a loooongggggg time in football. Most top clubs in Europe would have sacked him by now but Wenger will always be a legend regardless.

• 18-Oct-2010 18:50 | | mr h
  

  Great post. Good to see there are still the faithful out there. I may be a member of the AKB, but that is only because he has a vision. Stick with those with vision, or you may end up bottom of the table after 8 matches, two seasons after nearly winning the league. You have two options really, build for the future, or pay for it with credit. Credit always needs to be paid for, while building it yourself, means you don't owe anybody anything.

• 18-Oct-2010 19:12 | | Ugandan Gooner  - Great Job Goonerfish
  

  That is a great post Goonerfish and it is good to know that there are people who still believe in the manager.
  The future will be much better on and off the pitch.

• 19-Oct-2010 11:52 | | CHGooner
  

  Oh dear oh dear. Pathetic in the extreme. He is a liar, a hypocrite and since he's created his own team in it's entirety a failure. Great. Ode to Wenger indeed, by the way whuile you're praying thank him for rescuing the Chilean miners as well, sure it must be down to him somewhere.

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